Daily Advent Reflections

Be watchful!

During this Advent season, we are pleased to again share daily reflections with the Fordham Prep community.
 

By Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ
 

As we begin Advent, we are called to be watchful and alert. We are called to ask ourselves, “Could it be we have wandered from God’s ways? Have our hearts hardened, that we fear not the absence of God’s presence in our life?” Have we confused our own design of who God is to us and have failed to allow the true presence of God to guide us to God, to instruct us how to respond to the injustice of our time?

God is never indifferent to human suffering. On the contrary, God’s presence is revealed in our direct contact with human beings, in our response to human suffering.Daily I meet people who are on the margins of our society, people on the peripheries. Pope Francis calls us to go out to these peripheries to include those who are left out, easily discarded and unseen. They are people who are homeless, people who have immigrated, people who are poor.

The social injustices of our time are real. It is the result of an indifferent and detached society that fails to be mindful of God’s ways — a God who is inclusive and compassionate and who demands a response from us.

Take time this Advent to be alert. Be vigilant that you do not wander off from God’s way. Rather than being seduced by the evils of the world that easily invade our minds and hearts and pull us away from God, look instead for ways to respond to the injustices of our time.

FOR REFLECTION:

• How do you stay open to God’s presence in your life?
• What do you need to do to stay alert and responsive?

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Mr. Brian Pinter of the Religious Studies department invites parents to join an Advent Bible series, Praying with the Men and Women of Advent,  at the Church of St. Ignatius onTuesdays, 7-8 p.m. in person and on zoom, December 5,12,19.  RSVP @ pinterb@fordhamprep.org

Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent - Practicing Hope

By Vinita Hampton Wright, Loyola Press

We have a season in which to give our faith a workout, in which to exercise our hope muscles. Some years make that exercise more difficult than others. But it’s Advent now, and, as people of faith, we are called upon to exercise our hope.
If hope isn’t created for times such as these—when countries are divided, when civil war annihilates whole communities and sends refugees fleeing, when hungry children are ignored because their interests are of no interest to powerful entities, when human beings are trafficked by the thousands to be used for sex or cheap labor, when industry and wealth win over the health of the planet and all its creatures and the global community—if hope isn’t created for times such as these, then why have hope at all?
So let’s try Advent once again. Let’s practice a hopeful way of being in the world.

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Mr. Brian Pinter of the Religious Studies department invites parents to join an Advent Bible series, Praying with the Men and Women of Advent,  at the Church of St. Ignatius onTuesdays, 7-8 p.m. in person and on zoom, December 5,12,19.  RSVP @ pinterb@fordhamprep.org

Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent - The Incarnation

By Becky Eldredge, Loyola Press

The Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises begins with a Contemplation on the Incarnation (SE 101–109). The graces we pray for with this meditation are the graces of the entire Second Week: to have intimate knowledge of Jesus, to love him more, and to follow him more closely. I invite us to pray for these graces this Advent season, that these four weeks may be a season that draws us ever closer to knowing Jesus, loving Jesus, and following Jesus.

We begin with the Contemplation on the Incarnation and the uniquely Ignatian view of Advent it offers. In this meditation, St. Ignatius invites us to imagine the Trinity looking down upon the earth and seeing it filled with human beings. We are invited to use our imaginations to ponder what the Trinity sees and notices in gazing upon all the people. Ignatius adds a few thoughts on what we might see: some healthy, others sick, some weeping, and others laughing. He invites us to notice the blindness and aimlessness and to hear how people are talking to each other. Finally, he invites us to hear the Trinity say, “Let us work the redemption of the human race,” (SE 107) as God plans to send the angel to Mary and then watches as the Incarnation is set into motion.

It is in the reality of our world that God is still with us, seeking to birth Christ in all areas of our lives.

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent - Miracle of Abundance

From My Catholic Life
 

Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets full. 
Matthew 15:36–37

This line concludes the second miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes as told by Matthew. In this miracle, seven loaves and a few fish were multiplied to feed 4,000 men, not counting the women and children. And once everyone ate and was satisfied, seven full baskets remained.

Recall that the crowds had been with Jesus for three days without food. They were amazed at Him as He taught and continually healed the sick in their presence. They were so amazed, in fact, that they showed no sign of leaving Him, despite the obvious hunger they must have been experiencing. This is a wonderful image of what we must seek to have in our interior life.

What is it that “amazes” you in life? What is it that you can do hour after hour without losing your attention? For these first disciples, it was the discovery of the very Person of Jesus that had this effect upon them. How about you? Have you ever found that the discovery of Jesus in prayer, or in the reading of Scripture, or through the witness of another, was so compelling that you became engrossed in His presence? Have you ever become so engrossed in our Lord that you thought of little else?

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent - God of Here & Now

By Joseph Durepos, Loyola Press

A friend told me a story recently. He was attending a day of reflection at a nearby retreat center. The priest who was leading the day was fielding questions from the audience. Many of the questions dealt with the kinds of fears and worries common to all of us these days. Finally, the priest looked at the people gathered and said simply, “Remember, God deals with what is, not with what if.” This lesson hit home for me as I went through a tough stretch. With each crisis I knew I had a choice—I could ask God to walk with me through the difficulty and help me to learn what I could from each painful event. Or I could throw up my hands and ask God why this was happening to me.

And while I don’t recommend you invite calamities into your life to help you focus—surely life knows how to serve up calamities all on its own—in every moment you can attempt to be present, even as we long for God to be present. After all, where else could we ever meet God but right here and right now?

This is what Advent is all about, welcoming the God of the Here-and-Now.

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent - Mary’s Grace

Today's feast of the Immaculate Conception refers to the specific grace of Mary's own origin. From the moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, Anne, Mary was preserved from all stain of sin to prepare her for her vocation of bearing the Word of God to the world.

Mariology (the theology study of Mary) not only reveals the graces that God has given to Mary but also reveals what God desires to do for us. In Mary, we see the paradigmatic human vocation: to open ourselves so perfectly to God's love, to God's Word, that that Word takes on human shape. What the Immaculate Conception reveals is ultimately what all of the Christian faith reveals: that we are sons and daughters of a God whose love is far greater and desires our love more deeply than we could ever comprehend. Thus, Mary's grace is meant for us, meant to lead us into union with God, as well.
- Excerpt from Faith ND, University of Notre Dame

Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent - Love is Coming

In this video reflection, Joe Paprocki shares what Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young have to do with Advent and gratitude.  Paprocki is the National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press and author of books including 7 Keys to Spiritual Wellness. He blogs at Catechist’s Journey, where this reflection originally appeared as the post “Advent: Love Is Coming!”

Advent Week 1: Love Is Coming

Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Change Your Mind

By Lis Brown, USCatholic.org
 

It’s ironic that our readings at this time each year so strongly feature John the Baptist. He is our primary spokesman for Advent and yet, what could be further from the cozy images of family celebrations under the soft glow of tiny tree lights than this wild, haggard prophet dressed in camel hair, smelling of bug-breath and the poverty of desert discipleship?

Image aside, John was an incredible man of dedication and courage who lived what he preached with a depth of integrity that demanded a hearing. John understood his mission as one of preparation: to make straight the path for Jesus. 

Through the outer ritual of baptism he wished to facilitate an inner repentance. Repentance is a translation of the Greek word metanoia, which simply means to change our mind. The repentance John is initiating isn’t one that would have us shamefully beat our breasts and undertake harsh acts of atonement. Rather, through the ritual of baptism he is hoping to change our thinking—to remove any obstacles that keep us from recognizing God’s boundless love revealed in the person of Jesus.

Meister Eckhart said, “Any talk of God that does not comfort you is a lie.” And isn’t this at the heart of the good news? Jesus brought us this message: No matter who you are, what you believe, what you have done, if you attend religious services or not, you are loved… and there is nothing you can do about that. It is simply not in your power to change God’s love for you. It is impossible, like turning off the sun.

Offending God with our sin is not the problem. In fact, it is rather arrogant to even imagine there is any sin greater than God’s mercy. The obstacle John is intent to remove is our conviction that we are unlovable, and our sins unforgiveable. How can we live out our baptismal call to share the good news if we haven’t believed the news ourselves? Accepting God’s acceptance is the metanoia, the change of mind, that marks the true repentance John is urging us to undertake. This Advent, may we do just that so we may be bold, faithful, living signs of God’s compassion in our world. 

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- 4 Gifts of Advent
 

The four weeks of Advent are a time of spiritual preparation that begins with an awareness of our own longing and leads us to a deeper openness to the many gifts God wants to give us. The gift for the second week of Advent is that God speaks a reassuring word of comfort in the midst of our discontent and longing. In this quiet season—a season we tend to fill up with a lot of noise and frantic activity—make time daily to listen for the comforting words of God in your life. Probably the quickest way to begin hearing those words is to create a daily gratitude list. Set aside five minutes each morning or evening and take a few deep breaths. When you are settled, start jotting down whatever comes to your mind that you are grateful for. With a heart full of gratitude, everything else in our lives will change. We will begin to see, even in the demands of our Christmas preparations, the real purpose of those efforts—celebrating the Lord's arrival in our life and the lives of those we love.
- Loyola Press

Read about the other three gifts here

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today we commemorate the apparition of Our Lady to Juan Diego, an indigenous man, and her request for him to facilitate through the local bishop the building of a shrine on Tepeyac Hill. To celebrate and remember this happening and the life of Juan Diego, communities across the continent will rise with the sun at dawn to greet Our Lady with songs, roses and dancing. 

Especially when we feel overwhelmed, it is easy to feel as though God is far away. It can feel like God is other than us, as though we are not good enough for God, or as though our problems are not important enough for God to be bothered. The beauty of the story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe is in its reminder that, always, God meets us where we are. 

Not only this, God shows up in the seemingly most unexpected places. The hillside of Tepeyac, where the apparition appeared, was rocky. It is not known to have previously produced vegetation. Thus, imagine Juan Diego’s shock upon witnessing so many blooming roses in what was believed to be barren land. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is the reminder and great Mystery that, in addition to being almighty, God is also one of us. Whether an infant in a stable, or the beautiful indigenous woman — Our Lady of Guadalupe — God looks like us, talks like us, dresses like us.

• Catholic Health Association of the United States, Advent Reflections

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Peace that is Emmanuel, God with us.

We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.

We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.

We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.

Peace.

Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.

We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,

Implore you to stay a while with us.

So we may learn by your shimmering light

How to look beyond complexion and see community.

– Maya Angelou

My introduction to Maya Angelou, an incredible woman and a provocative writer, was when she read a poem at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration.  I was doubly excited because she was an African American poet.  I took it as a sign that our nation had come a long way since the Jim Crow era.  She was also the first poet invited to read at a presidential inauguration since Robert Frost at JFK’s in 1961. I felt hopeful.

Now Maya Angelou is gone, and I am finding it difficult to feel hopeful about our country.  I also realize that we haven’t journeyed as I’d thought far from the injustices and degradation of our racist and there is clearly much violence hidden in our national shadow. Inspired then by the late Maya Angelou, I’d like to offer my own poem to the “Peace of Christmas.”

The once fruited plain grows cold and mean
Retreating back into complexions and tribes
Our common humanity willfully unseen.
What has become of us, what have we done?
Decades of sacrifice and struggle
But was anything won?
With this grieving soul I beg the Christmas Peace
Melt this nation of cold hearts with shimmering light
We are unable to make the hatred cease.
Can we live as sisters and brothers?
How long must we suffer through this moral night?
Only through you, O Peace, can we move beyond “us” and “other.”

Prayer: Holy One, I pray that our hearts may be inspired by the peace that is Emmanuel, God with us.

- Brian Pinter, Fordham Prep Religious Studies Department

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Taking Advent Seriously

By Jim Manney, Loyola Press
 

Years ago, I gave up on Advent. It was hard to maintain the Advent frame of mind (quiet longing for the coming of Christ) in the midst of the Christmas tumult, which seems to get started around Columbus Day. I remember listening to a priest one Sunday urging us to take Advent seriously by waiting until Christmas Eve to put up the tree and other decorations. You don’t live in my world, Father, I sniffed.

But that was then. Now my wife and I live in a home without children. Advent candles, prayers at dinner, and a certain simplicity and restraint in lifestyle become more possible. More desirable, really, because I think about the season differently.

Advent is sensual. It’s a season of barren trees and cold hands and darkness that falls earlier every day. We put away the patio furniture, caulk the windows, and retreat indoors. It’s a season of light—burning logs in the fireplace, candles in the Advent wreath, gossamer white lights in the trees along Main Street.

Advent breaks down the walls between the sacred and the secular. Yes, Christmas can devolve into a gaudy, commercial festival, but the core of it is family and gift-giving and music and food and happy celebration, and the core of all that is the coming of Christ into a cold, dark world. It’s delightful to anticipate all that. So let’s light the Advent candles and say the prayers and sing the songs. Christ is coming.

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection-  A Habit of Hope

As St. Paul reminds us, “Hoping for what we cannot see means awaiting it 

with patient endurance” (Romans 8:25). Each Advent, as I wait for the Child who brought us the hope that never fades, I give thanks.

-Joan Wester Anderson, Loyola Press
Read More

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- God’s Love for me

Have you ever been moved by the sight of a mom or dad holding the hand of their toddler as they walk on the sidewalk or cross the street? For whatever reason, that image grabs a part of me that readily recognizes the beauty of parental love in all its simplicity. I seem to be led to recognize that scene as an image of God’s wonderful care for all of creation. The parent easily represents God’s care and love.  At times like this I sometimes find myself seeped in the greatest of all realities: God’s love.

How might I respond to the insanely profound love God has for me?  I know myself and see the unlovable in me. Yet God is blind to that and seeks to look deeper and find a core down deep in me that he sees and loves. Also, he invites me to join him in order to experience God’s love/care simply and humbly as God’s gift to me. I am good, not because I “do good things”, but simply because I am, and God invites me to view myself as God views me – with love and grace.

Fr. Tom Shanahan, S.J., Creighton University

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Mary’s Joy

I have to admit: Sometimes, when I’m reviewing the readings for the week, I skip over the psalms. It’s not that I dislike them; I just kind of forget about them when moving from the first reading to the second. But I’m really thankful that, in preparation for this week, I didn’t skip the psalm, because it turns out this week’s psalm is one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible: the Magnificat of Mary.

Taken from the Gospel of Luke—the gospel writer who by far paid the most attention to women in his work—Mary’s song of praise is much more than the words of a young girl giving thanks to God. It is a radical vision of a world made new. The lowliest are called blessed. The hungry are satisfied. The rich are sent away empty. In the unabridged version, the mighty powers are brought low; the proud are scattered; the humble are exalted.

This is among the most powerful scriptures we have. So what is it doing mixed in with all the readings about joy on Gaudete Sunday? Could it be that it is a roadmap toward building a world where joy can be shared by all, equally?

The Magnificat is a rare example in the Bible when we are given direct access not just to a woman’s words, but to her thoughts, beliefs, even dreams. Mary’s dream of the future and her skillful interpretation of what God is creating is full of joy, even amid the uncertainty of a changing world, even amid the strain of waiting for something new. She recognizes God’s goodness within the disruption of the status quo, in the promise of justice and a better life. She envisions the world that Jesus’s birth is meant to begin—a world of broken rules, radical generosity, and unabashed equity—and she finds it joyful to behold.

Let Mary’s joy be our joy. Feed the hungry. Exalt the humble. Turn every hierarchy on its head. Do what Jesus and Mary both realized they were born to do, and what each of us was baptized to take on. Find joy in the disruptive work of birthing the Kingdom of God.

• Jennifer Vosters, US Catholic

Advent Reflection- An Examen of Care

• Let us, then, take time to reflect on our care for and from others.
• Who are the people God has entrusted to me to show particular care? I hold their faces in my imagination and attend to the feelings they elicit.
• Whom have I encountered over the past day, strangers and friends alike? Who are the people to whom I have shown care? Who are the people I have ignored?
• What are some ways others have shown me care today?
• What remains in my memory as an example of unmerited care? Perhaps I recall a time when I was vulnerable and in need of caring attention. What feelings does this memory evoke in me now?
• What is an example of someone caring for another that inspires me?
• Whom do I long to care for? Whom do I hope will care for me?
• What are my hopes for a world in which people care for one another? What is the small part I might play in such a world?
• When have I failed to show care? I attend to the feelings my memory evokes.

  —Excerpted from “An Examen of Care” by Tim Muldoon, Loyola Press

Advent Reflection- O Antiphons

The “O Antiphons” are prayed for 7 days in preparation for Christmas: December 17–23. For those familiar with the Liturgy of the Hours, these are the antiphons used with the Magnificat each day. They are based on Isaiah’s prophecies and reveal the different titles given to the Messiah.

O Sapientia (O Wisdom) Isaiah 11:2–3; 28:29
O Adonai (O Lord) Isaiah 11:4–5; 33:22
O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse) Isaiah 1:1; 11:10
O Clavis David (O Key of David) Isaiah 9:6; 22:22
O Oriens (O Rising Sun) Isaiah 9:1
O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations) Isaiah 9:5; 2:4
O Emmanuel (God with us) Isaiah 7:14

Since each antiphon is short, it is helpful to spend time reading it each day, pondering it and praying it meditatively throughout the day as a way to make immediate spiritual preparation for Christmas.

Here is today’s O Antiphon:

O Root of Jesse’s stem,
sign of God’s love for all his people:
come to save us without delay!

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Laying down your Burdens

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

One of the most delightful and healthy activities in life is sleep. This is especially the case when one is able to enter into a deep and refreshing sleep. Upon awakening, the person who has slept deeply feels refreshed and ready for a new day. Of course, the opposite is also true. When sleep is difficult and restless, the person can suffer numerous ill effects, especially when a lack of healthy sleep becomes the norm.

The same is true in our spiritual lives. For many people, “spiritual rest” is something foreign to them. They may say a few prayers each week, attend Mass, or even make a holy hour. But unless each one of us enters into a form of prayer that is deep and transforming, we will not be able to experience the interior spiritual rest we need.

Jesus’ invitation in the  Gospel to “Come to me…” is an invitation to become transformed, interiorly, as we allow Him to relieve us of the burdens of our daily lives. Each day we often face spiritual hardships and challenges, such as temptations, confusions, disappointments, angers and the like. These and many other things we encounter each and every day will have the effect of wearing us down interiorly on a spiritual level. As a result, we need the spiritual refreshment that comes only from our Lord. We need the spiritual “sleep” that results from deep and revitalizing prayer. And that form of prayer is only possible if we heed Christ’s invitation to come to Him with every fiber of our being, surrendering all that we are and all that we encounter each and every day.

Reflect, today, upon whether you feel weary at times. Seek the remedy our Lord offers you by accepting His invitation to come to Him, deeply in prayer, and rest in His presence. Doing so will help to lift the heavy burdens with which you struggle.

My loving Lord, I accept Your invitation to come to You and rest in Your glorious presence. Draw me in, dear Lord, to Your heart that is overflowing with grace and mercy. Draw me into Your presence so that I may rest in You and be delivered from the many burdens of life. Jesus, I trust in You.

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Undercurrent of Healing
 

When Jesus came to Earth, he represented a great change in the world’s currents. What was divided could now come together. What was sin could be made into righteousness. What was angry and hostile could be converted to contentment and peace. What was wounded could be healed. And so we sense in Advent a powerful undercurrent of healing.
The divine energy that created the universe courses through our own souls and makes it possible for us to take the raw materials of life and turn them into beauty and goodness. That power that brought human and divine together in Jesus of Nazareth fuels our hearts and minds to bring together what is broken apart. We are meant to be creators. Even more, we are meant to be healers.
What are the raw materials of your life during this Advent season? What can you use to make something beautiful? Your talents? Your money? Your friendships? Your prayers?
- Vinata Hampton Wright, Loyola Press

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Family

Let me highlight just two figures from Jesus’ family. First, Ruth, who was not an Israelite but rather a Moabite, a foreigner. Some of you reading this feel like outsiders, not part of the “in” crowd, looked at askance by others. Well, the Messiah came forth from Ruth the foreigner and was pleased to be her relative.

Then there is Rahab, a prostitute living and working in Jericho. Are there people reading these words who feel like Rahab? Who think that their whole lives have been sunk in sin? Well, the Messiah came forth from Rahab the prostitute, and he was pleased to be her relative.The good news of Christmas is that God himself pushed into the dysfunctional and ambiguous family of man.

Think about your own family’s “dysfunctions and ambiguities.” Where have you seen God work through these issues? How does the ancestry of Jesus give you hope for your own family?
- Bishop Robert Barron

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Additional Advent resources can be found here.

Advent Reflection- Known by what we do

Christ, and all of us, will be known by what we do. We will not be judged ultimately by the sky we were born under, the family that raised us, the raiment that adorned us, the treasure we gathered, the vegetation that surrounded us. We will be reduced, essentially, to a bundle of declarative sentences about how we lived life.

Will evangelists one day report that we followed our deep seraphic dreams; that we obeyed our conscience over a death-dealing law; that we welcomed into our fearful lives the most outrageous and dazzling creature known to mankind? Will they tell the world that we, quite simply, loved others in word and deed, and let ourselves be loved? Or that we didn’t?

• Joe Hoover, SJ, America Media

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Advent Reflection- Awaiting Baby Jesus
 

My heart is beating, filled with joy,
awaiting Mary’s baby boy.
For with this child, we embrace
the birth of God’s most precious grace.
Baby Jesus, soon to come!
For us comes the Promised One.
Baby Jesus, God’s own Son,
you will be the Chosen One
to lead our flock into salvation.
Our eternal life awaits.
The birth of Jesus brings us nearer
Heaven’s holy gates.
Sing with joy, and count the days,
for soon to come, the Lord we’ll praise.
Rejoice that Jesus will soon arrive,
the Messiah and our faith alive.
- Loyola Press

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Wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and happy and healthy new year.